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Quick Tips: Sunny 16

Posted on April 6, 2010

Spring is finally here and, though it provides an obstacle you have to learn to shoot around, the sun is back and better than ever! Exposure in full sunlight can be tricky and overwhelming, but someone very smart came up with the mnemonic Sunny 16 to help remember recommended aperture settings and shutter speeds.

The Sunny 16 rule is a method of estimating correct daylight exposures without a light meter. Simply put, when it’s sunny, change your aperture to f/16.

Great, now what about the clouds? Glad you asked:

When it’s slightly overcast, f/11.

Overcast? Go with f/8.

And heavy overcast, f/5.6 is your best bet.

A gorgeous sunset that you absolutely must preserve? Your best bet is likely f/4.

Of course, like most of photography, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Choosing a shutter speed

If you are using manual mode, which is usually denoted with an M on the dial of your dSLR, you can also choose your shutter speed. (If you’re working in aperture priority mode, your shutter speed will be chosen by the camera.)

Your shutter speed should be set to the (nearest) reciprocal of your ISO setting.

What this means is if your ISO is set to 100, your shutter speed should be 1/125 (since it’s closest to 100). On a sunny day with your ISO set to 200, your aperture should be set at f/16 and your shutter speed at 1/200 or 1/250.

Your shutter speed can be changed as long as you change your f-stop to compensate for it. For example, f/16 at 1/125 is the same as f/11 at 1/250.

Practice makes perfect

“Sunny 16″ sounds easy, right? Like anything, it takes practice. And you to help you practice, I’m now offering free Quick Tips reference cards! The cards are 2×3.5 inches in size, perfect for on-the-go. The first in the series is the Sunny 16 card, which can be downloaded on the Freebies page.

Did I mention they’re free? Because they are (and free is awesome!). Send yours friends!

Make sure you snag yours and keep coming back for more. I have a neat plan for keeping the cards together and attached to your camera, so make sure you check back for that in the coming weeks.

Exposure & the holy trinity

Posted on March 7, 2010

When I solicited questions from my Twitter followers, Kimberley (@KMDeakins) replied with questions about exposure and a couple of its elements. Her specific request was:

A DSLR distionary for dummies: aperture, ISO, exposure, etc. What is it? What does it do? Why & When would you tweak it?

It would take me years to write something like that! You’re just trying to keep me busy, aren’t you? It’s working.

The truth is many people are curious about exposure and different settings. It’s overwhelming, especially to beginners and is one reason people who own DSLRs don’t turn the dial from Auto mode and take the dive into manual settings.

If you own a DSLR and never take it off of auto mode, you’ve wasted money. Having an expensive camera doesn’t make your photos any more stunning. In fact, when I purchased my first DSLR, I was upset because I had more options with my point and shoot camera; I had to get used to using my 28-70mm lens instead of having 10x zoom and wide angles with the P&S.

My plan is to go over different aspects of exposure in bits and pieces, such as in the exposure quick tips for sunny, snowy and overcast days. I don’t want this blog to be a textbook, I’d just like to offer some simple tips to help But before we get any further with those tips, let’s define exposure and its holy trinity.

What is it?

Simply put, exposure is the total amount of light allowed to fall on a photographic medium (film or an image sensor). There are three components of exposure: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. Yes, the holy trinity.

To understand exposure and to get it right, you have to also understand the trinity. Why? Because they all work together, like the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Or Alvin, Simon and Theodore. Success depends on all three elements.

Aperture

An aperture is the opening through which light passes. Think of it like the pupils of your eyes – it regulates how much light enters the lens. When your eyes are dilated, more light enters. The same is true with the aperture on your camera: a larger aperture means more light. A smaller, obviously, less light.

Aperture is calibrated in f-stops – like f/1.4, f/16 or f/22. And here’s where it gets tricky: the larger number is actually a smaller aperture. Crazy, I know. This is because this number is the focal ratio and, I guess, it makes sense somewhere. I’m not a math person, I’m a pictures and words kind of girl, so I’ll just nod my head and smile. Just remember, when you’re shooting, it’s backwards: low numbers are large apertures, high numbers are smaller apertures.

Aperture settings generally double – f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8 …

Aperture is also an important component of depth of field (or background blurring). Your composition/angle and the closeness of your subject also play a factor.

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter is open; it’s measured in fractions of a second. The greater the denominator – the number in the bottom of the fraction – the faster the shutter closes.

You use faster shutter speeds – 1/500, 1/250 – for fast-movement, such as sports. I use these speeds when shooting photos of basketball games.

Slow shutter speeds – 1/15, 1/20 – are used for still motion and/or low-light situations where you want to let as much light in as possible. For example, when my husband and I honeymooned at the beach, the moon gently rose above the sea and was the most beautiful shade of orange; I propped my camera up on a deck railing, set my shutter to 1/25 and started snapping photo after photo after photo. When using slow shutter speeds, use a tripod (or makeshift tripod – like the deck railing) to steady the camera and prevent blurry photos.

Other speeds are used for portraiture, candids, snapshots and other everyday photography. You will likely use 1/60 and greater on a daily basis.

To determine which shutter speed you should be using, decide what you want accomplished within the photograph. Do you want movement? Is the subject still? How’s the lighting?

ISO

The last member of the trinity is ISO setting, which technically refers to film speed (even though you’re using a digital camera). ISO determines how sensitive the image sensor is to light.

ISO speeds generally start at 100 and go to 800-1600 or even higher, depending on the camera. The lower the number, the slower the speed.

Just as you’d use 100 or 200 film on a sunny day, you’d use 100 or 200 as your ISO setting. In low-light settings, a room lit by candles or a roaring fire, you’d likely increase your ISO to 1600. And for something in-between, like a cloudy day or dusk, bump your ISO to 400-600.

However, as you increase your ISO, you will lose image quality. I used to change my ISO only, which resulted in some not-so-great photos; learn to change your shutter speed and aperture along with your ISO settings so you don’t make the same mistake I did.

The Holy Trinity working together

Now that we know what everything is, how does it all work together?

I’ve seen a great metaphor over at Digital Photography School for the way each element works to create a properly exposed photo: a window.

Yes, a window.

Imagine your camera is a room with a window that has shutters that open and close. Your aperture would be the window and the bigger the window, the brighter your room. The amount of time your shutters are open is your shutter speed; the longer they’re open, the more light you get.

DPS uses sunglasses to represent ISO, but I like to think of it as a touch lamp. Remember those? (My friend still uses one in his office – what a diva!) When the window’s letting in a lot of light and your shutters are open, you won’t need to tap it to make the room brighter; however, as the room gets darker (imagine the window getting smaller and/or the shutters closing faster) you’ll need to touch the lamp to make the room brighter.

And there you have it: Exposure and the Holy Trinity. (Insert applause here!)

Does it seem overwhelming? It really is, I know. But do it anyway; take the camera off of auto mode and play with your settings, see what happens.

There is so much more to exposure, but I wanted to define the trinity before delving into other aspects. Alvin, Simon and Theodore have been introduced, now we can talk about them individually. And maybe meet the Chipettes, too!

Quick Tips: Sunny Days

Posted on February 2, 2010

My children are adorable, aren’t they? And this photo, well it’s a memento of a great weekend spent with friends and family camping at Hot Springs National Park this past summer – sleeping under the stars with a cool breeze, exploring the creek and its slippery rocks and bonding as a family.

There are wonderful memories attached to this photo, but it isn’t a very good one. The exposure is all wrong.

The sun is behind them so they are not being blinded, but the shadows are too heavy and the highlights too bright. Fixing these mistakes in Photoshop produces a grainy, low contrast image that is poor in quality. It’s quite the disappointment, one I could have avoided if I’d taken a few more second and changed my settings. Read more

Photographing sunset

Posted on January 30, 2010

When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator. – Mahatma Gandhi

Seeing the sun rise and fall over the fields made me fall in love with West Tennessee. It is so prevalent here, the sun, and when I lived with my parents I always had a wonderful view of its beauty. The balcony from the upstairs area is a wonderful place to enjoy the sun painting the sky with reds, oranges and yellows. In a word, it is breathtaking. And it is humbling.

I’m now surrounded by trees and leaving those sunrises saddens me. I never see them anymore. Sometimes I am lucky enough to be in the right spot for sunsets, though. A farm about a mile from our home is a great place to watch the sun become orange and the sky purple with closure.

Today I had the great fortune of visiting friends and as we were saying our goodbyes, the sun did as well.

I steadied my camera on the broken front end of our plastic sled, which was standing upright in the hard, icy snow, and shot the most beautiful sunset I have ever captured. I love the tones. I love the way the trees silhouette against the soothing purple and the fiery orange. I love the focus. And I love the memory of this day, a relaxed and wonderful afternoon spent with great friends.

It was a beautiful end to a wonderful day.

And also a great time to use negative exposure compensation. I dialed this one down to -2 and made sure to keep the camera still, which is important any time you are working in low light. The shutter, if set correctly, will stay open longer to absorb all available light; if the camera is not on a tripod of some sort, you will likely end up with a blurry photo.

I invite you to try it on your own tomorrow. If you have a dSLR, take it off of Auto mode and switch it to Aperture Priority, then experiment until you have a photo you love. If you’re using a point & shoot camera, you can experiment with different exposure settings as well. I invite you to share them with me, too! Leave me a comment with a link to your photos so I can check them out!

Compensating exposure on cloudy snow days

Posted on January 30, 2010

This morning I snuck out of the house before breakfast to take a few more photos in the snow and play with exposure. The ground is covered in the white stuff – plus a lot of ice! – and the sky went from sunny to cloudy while I was dressing.

I was hoping to get some sunny snow day shots, but apparently Mother Nature had other plans in mind. Instead, we’ll look more at setting your camera straight on overcast days.

To show you the difference compensation can make on a snow day, here are a few examples. These photos were taken within seconds of each other, in the same light.

I shot these with my Nikon D5000 and have the option of going to -/+5 at .3 intervals. Each camera is different, however; my Canon Digital Rebel XTi only goes to -/+2.

Remember that positive compensation allows more light in (overexposing) and negative compensation allows less light (underexposing). You would use negative compensation in dim light, such as a sunset. Read more

Quick Tips: Great Snow Pics

Posted on January 30, 2010

Tomorrow will likely be a snow day across much of the United States, which means those of us in the South (hello, Volunteer State!) and the Southeast (I’m looking at you, Virginia) who rarely see snow will be layering up and heading outside to play.

And many of you will tote a camera with you to capture the nostalgia that is this frozen precipitation.Before you go, check out a few tips for taking photos in the snow:

Charge your batteries
Nothing zaps a battery faster than cold weather! Make sure your batteries are fully charged before trudging out in the cooler temperatures, because once you get all bundled up you probably don’t want to go back in until you’re numb.

Protect your camera
Many photographers recommend protecting your camera from the sleet and snow by putting it inside a plastic zip-top bag. This will prevent your lens and camera body from getting wet; water droplets cause blurry photos and damaged cameras. If you’d like, cut a hole in the bottom of the bag large enough for your lens or lens hood so the plastic doesn’t affect your focus.

Use your camera strap – you’d hate to drop it, especially when it’s snowing.

To reduce condensation in your lens and viewfinder, your camera needs to acclimate. When you’re ready to come back inside, leave it in the garage or in your pocket for 30 minutes, then bring it inside. Unless you are using your camera’s internal memory, you can remove your memory card and download and edit your photos while you wait to bring the camera back inside.

Exposure
Ever notice that our cameras often translate white snow as gray or blue in color on an overcast day? This is because your camera is automatically preventing an overexposure, believing your subject to be an item on the gray scale being brightly lit.

To avoid this, simply adjust your camera’s exposure compensation. Start with +1, then experiment to see which setting (+1, +1.5, +2) works best for your conditions.

Consult your camera’s user manual for directions on making this adjustment, though this is usually labeled in the settings menu or like this: +/-.

Don’t worry if you don’t exactly nail it on the first try, you can always adjust the exposure using photo editing software.

When you’re shooting the requisite photo of your house covered in snow, try to do it as close to mid-morning possible because the colors are more subdued and true. The light can be too bright in full sun or can be too warm at sunset, casting a reddish hue over your subjects.

Use your camera’s built-in flash, even in bright sunlight, for fill flash to reduce shadows over faces.

Other tips
Vivid colors pop against snow. They can also be enhanced using a photo editor.

Use your camera’s action or sports setting when your subjects are sledding or making snow angels. If you don’t, they’ll likely be blurry.

Great creative with different perspectives.

Wear gloves to keep your hands warm; your best bet is thin or fingerless gloves as thick ones will reduce your dexterity and may be slippery on the shutter release button.

Most of all, have fun, stay warm and enjoy the snow! And don’t forget the hot cocoa.